We continue serialization of the collected edition of the six-issue 2018 miniseries Empowered and Sistah Spooky’s High School Hell, written and laid out by me and featuring art and lettering by Guest Artist Carla “Speed” McNeil and coloring by Jenn Manley Lee.
As noted yesterday, last weekend I tried drawing and lettering a new "Metatextual Emp" page kicking off the bonus content for 2026's Empowered Deluxe Edition vol. 4, using some Czech 8B(!) 2mm pencil leads I dug up a few years ago for sketching; I'm down to maybe a dozen of the very specific batch of 5B Berol-Turquoise pencil leads that I used to draw the last 5 or 6 volumes of Empowered, which I dare not use up in case I have to do future Emp art patches or replacement pages or the like.
Wellp, while the newer 8Bs are fine for loose sketching and rough drafts, they are quite incapable of the more detailed and precise rendering I once drew on Empowered pages; worse, they are entirely unusable for hand-lettering, as their pencil tips snap off under the heavy pressure required. Whoops!
Continued tomorrow!
Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste and the Chained. Golly!-Adam Warren
